NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



find that, although this writer's */>* QOTOH/ rots 

 <)vots (De Ossibus ad Tirones) contains a fairly 

 accurate description of various bones, the objects 

 thus described are, in many instances, not human, 

 but simian. Coming to recent times, it appears 

 from an old paper in the British Museum, quoted 

 by Captain Sayer, that the Barbary ape certainly 

 inhabited Gibraltar as early as 1740, in which 

 year a large number were imported : a poll-tax 

 was instituted on "apes, Jews, Moors and other 

 aliens ! " 



A few weeks before the famous siege of 

 Gibraltar (1779-82) the Spaniards attempted to 

 surprise a British outpost : but the apes of the 

 Rock played the part formerly enacted by the 

 geese of the Capitol, for by their cries they gave 

 the alarm to the British, who promptly repulsed 

 the enemy. Successive garrisons at Gibraltar 

 took considerable interest in the wild monkeys, 

 and, indeed, General Elliott (afterwards Lord 

 Heathfield) never allowed them to be captured 

 or even molested. The apes were hence very 

 numerous in the old days, wandering about in 

 several troops : however, at last, they became so 

 destructive to the fruit gardens that the protection 

 was withdrawn and they were destroyed by trap 

 and poison almost to the point of extermination. 

 In 1856 the surviving monkeys (only some half- 

 dozen all told) were again protected, and in 1863 



